Hitori, Futari: Oniisan, Watashi no Yume
by Yohko no Gothika
Summary: InuYasha never knew what happened to his little sister. He never asked. He didn't WANT to know. Alot can happen in 50 years. NEWEST CHAPTER-Tamasine's twisted fate is revealed in fifteen pages of horror. Rated for content.
1. Scroll 1 : Prelude, End of Summer Break

Yohko's Note to the General Public:  
  
*waves vigorously* HI EVERYBODY!!! I hope that Dame Dame Dame hasn't  
traumatized all of you and that you're able to stomach the fact that I  
have a new fan fic ( *rubs hands together maniacally* mufufu! ) Trust  
me, I made my YYH fan fic character alot more violent, hostile,  
standoffish, and angsty than Tamasine (my IY fan fic character) is.  
Yeah, she's violent, but not AS violent and besides if you know  
InuYasha you better know that there's violence in it all the time. If  
you even glance at Dame Dame Dame and compare it to Sibling Rivalry  
you're going to notice some key differences between the characters I  
make up. Why? Because if I don't keep you on your toes, I'll have no  
life. So anyway, have fun with my first supernatural/humor fic...if  
you can stomach it you insignificant, low-self-esteemed, jerk-assed  
wuss. Love you all.  
  
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------  
  
SCROLL 1 : Prelude  
  
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!  
  
"MAKE ME, WENCH!!!"  
  
Shippo ground his teeth together. They'd been going like this for atleast a half an hour. He'd been trying everything to block out the sound of their perpetual screeching and ripped more grass from the muddy earth and attempted to stuff it into his already over-stuffed ears. Some of it slipped out as soon as it was squished in and twirled swiftly upon the wind until it hit the ground.  
  
Kagome, meanwhile, stomped in an angry huff through the forest, towards the Bone-Eater's well. Upon reaching the clearing where it lay she turned back to yell at InuYasha some more but discovered that he was already blocking her path.  
  
"YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE!"  
  
With that Kagome slapped him across the face. "YOU JERK! YOU IDIOT! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST NOT MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT THIS EVEN ONCE?!"  
  
InuYasha, still smarting from where he had been hit, recovered from his shock at the assult quite quickly. "WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHER GOING BACK ANYWAY?!" he hollered at her back as she marched towards the well.  
  
"I NEED AN EDUCATION! AND I'M GUNNA LET YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE, KEEP ME FROM THAT! WITH THE SHIKON JEWEL COMPLETED WE'VE GOT NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT ANYWAYS!" Kagome was furious. She had had enough. "IT'LL ONLY BE A YEAR!"  
  
"A YEAR IS TOO LONG!" InuYasha was straining his will to avoid strangling Kagome. This was seriously getting on his nerves. "I'M DAMN TIRED OF YOU GOING OFF ON YOUR RENDEVOUZ AND LEAVING ME HERE, AND THEN EXPECTING ME TO STAY AWAY FROM YOU UNTIL YOU SAY OTHERWISE! NO NO NO NO NO!!!"  
  
"YES YES YES YES YES! AND IF YOU STOP ME I'M NEVER EVER COMING BACK!!!"  
  
And with that, she dissappeared into the darkness of the well, vanished from the Feudal Era of Japan, and drifted back into the year 1999.  
  
XD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------  
  
Yeah, I know its short. Get the hell over it. 


	2. Scroll 2 : A Demon's Sweet Freedom

Yohko's Note to the General Public: 

Hello again. Despise me for giving you an extremely short prelude to feed off of? Yeah, figured you might be. So I'm not going to make you wait for this chapter. Have fun. 

XD -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**SCROLL 2: A Demon's Sweet Freedom**

"Darnit! I'm gunna be late!"

Kagome scrabbled furiously through the halls of her house, where she still lived with her mother, her grandfather, her younger brother Sota, and her cat Buyo, gathering all that she could think of into a large black book bag. The Shikon no Tama jangled about her neck, secured by a loose silver chain.

Her mother sighed. "I did try to wake you up."

"TRYING ISN'T ENOUGH MOM!" Kagome closed her book bag, hoping that it had everything in it that she would be needing at her first day as a senior in undergraduate-college. She had been attending Ao no Sora University for four years now, and had an extremely high grade point average, although she had horrible attendance because of how often, in previous years, she had gone back to Feudal Japan to see InuYasha and the rest of her friends. But now that the Shikon no Tama was complete she had vowed to have perfect attendance.

She ran for the door and ripped it open. "I'm picking you up today Sota!" she hollered back at her younger brother who was standing in the hallway, stroking a sleeping Buyo. He nodded just as she slammed the door and caused a miniature earthquake inside the house. In a minute, Kagome had hopped into her red sedan (not bothering to buckle her seatbelt) thrown her book bag into the back seat, and floored the gas. 

She got to school right on time, only to discover that she had a much bigger problem than being late to worry about. She had forgotten the school announcements of renovations. She had been gone the entire summer, so she had forgotten about it. Meanwhile, the homely little building she had known so well had turned into a gigantic skyscraper with elevators, and stories of sky-high learning space. The only real problem was, Kagome realized, her own cluelessness at where she needed to go. She nearly fainted from distress but grabbed a map of the school and began to plot her course of direction.

For fifteen minutes, Kagome wandered through the neatly tiled halls, with students hustling and bustling all about her. But soon they had all disappeared into their designated classrooms, and Kagome was left to search alone. She rode the elevators up and down, searched through almost all of the classes, but she could find none of her classes. There was just too much to search. She sighed, knowing that there was no way she would get to her first class (Advanced Calculus) on time.

Suddenly Kagome glanced up from her map and found herself meandering through the largest multi-purpose room she had ever seen. The ceiling had to be atleast 20 feet high, and it was very dark because the lights were so high off of the ground, and because (as Kagome saw when she glanced down at the map) it was 3 stories underground. A wooden stage was at the far end of the room, and the room was split into four areas. Gymnastics equipment crowded out the space of the upper left corner. A row of basketball courts were lined up in the upper right corner. Batting cages surrounded a large ball diamond to the lower right. Kendo equipment and soft mats were laid out in the lower left. The center was bare and empty.

Kagome sighed, softly, in complete awe, and as overtaken with amazement at the hugeness of the room. And then she looked up.

Impacted in the ceiling, Kagome could just barely make out what looked to be the mold of a teenage girl's head. It was graceful and slender, with short bobbed hair...and what looked to be a set of dog ears.

"Kagome?"

A voice from behind her shook Kagome violently into the world of reality. She whirled around to face the young man who had spoken. Hojo was standing there, looking as bewildered and confused as Kagome felt, but relieved to see a familiar face. She looked back at the ceiling, but the cast had dissapeared without a trace.

"Hojo!" she said, full of relief herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice you come in!"

Hojo waved a hand politely to impose that it didn't matter and gave her a warm and comforting smile. "That's okay. I didn't know anyone else was still in the halls. Do you need any help getting to your classes? I helped with construction so teachers have been sending me out to round up students who can't figure out where to go."

Her savior!

"R-R-Really?" Kagome was not half ready to believe her good fortune. "You...could really show me where my classes are?"

"Well certainly." Hojo leaned over her schedule, reading it flawlessly, even though it was upside down from where he was standing. "So, you need to get to Calculus, right? That's my next class too. We can go together."

As they walked to the elevator, Kagome's conscience was cheering so loudly she could've sworn it echoed through the MP room as they left it.

The rode in the elevator, the annoying chimes slowly and quietly playing in the background. Suddenly, Kagome was the reflective glimmer of the Shikon no Tama in Hojo's eyes, which were shining brightly. The doors opened, but he continued to stare at the jewel instead of leaving the elevator. "Hojo?" she asked loudly. "Ah...!" He seemed to snap out of a trance. "We're here aren't we? I'm sorry...it's just that jewel of yours. A gift?"

"Umm..." Kagome thought as quickly as she could. "...Well..." She flushed, mind blankening just when she most needed an idea. 

"Oh. I see. You...ARE...seeing someone else...I see." Hojo looked extremely sad and disappointed. Kagome flushed again. She had 'officially' broken up with him before summer break, ending a relationship she had never really seen to exist, but had obviously meant the world to Hojo. She had broken his heart - shredded it, ripped it, chewed it to a pulp, spat on the ground and rubbed it into the grunge with her shoe - and she knew it. Whether she had meant or not really didn't matter any more. Hojo's depression was all her fault, and it made her feel horrible to see him this way.

But he looked up and put on a smile. "Well, better get to Calculus eh? Shant be good if we're late the first day."

-----

Kagome nearly ran from her last class of the day (Home EC) and hustled onto a crammed elevator as it lowered itself almost painfully to the first floor. Then she heaved herself out, wrestled herself through the jam-packed exit lobby. But with her own strength she couldn't make it. She was pushed and shoved this way and that in the endless stream of students and suddenly found herself in yet another down elevator. She through herself at the doors but was shoved into the corner by the pupils pouring in and out of it, and could only watch as they closed. 

As the elevator went further and further down Kagome found herself immobilized and unable to move. As more and more students filtered out she was left alone, traveling to an unknown destination that she was somehow drawn to. She felt like a positive magnet being drawn to a much large and much more powerful negative force. In the middle of the tension she could feel an extremely evil presence burrowing into her mind. It was huge and immensely formidable, but it was also limited...held captive within its own physical bonds, it was unable to envelop her.

She wobbled to her feet and emerged from the elevator just as it 'ding'ed to basement level 3. The multi-purpose room. She stared, once again in awe, about the gargantuan room, but this time felt her gaze drawn to the cement ceiling. Her eyes drifted it over it and were, in turn, constantly being pulled back to the same spot: the center, where she had seen that dog girl's head. But no matter how many times she looked, no matter how she perused it, she could see that there was nothing to be seen. There simply wasn't any variation from it in opposition to any other part of the ceiling.

"But...I'm drawn to it somehow," Kagome whispered to herself, voicing her thoughts to no one.

Slowly, she turned and walked away, and despite the screams of her soul, clambered into her sedan and drove to pick up a grumbling Sota who clambered into her car without a word, but shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose much more violently than normal.

-----

Kagome got to school early the next morning, waking before any of her family, but her second day as a senior was just as much a flight through hell as the first had been...and it ended, once agin with Kagome standing, staring up at the concrete ceiling. "I just don't understand it...why am I drawn to it - how can I still feel an aura - of something that simply isn't there?" she mumbled to herself.

"Something the matter Kagome?"  
  
She spun around to, once again, find Hojo staring at her.

"Where--"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." He smiled, but Kagome noticed that something was different about him. "They're closing the school. I'm here to get anybody left out of the building."

"Oh--so you're kind of here to kick me out, huh?"

Hojo's smile widened. "Yes..in a way. I'm kind of here to make sure you don't get locked in."

"Oh...okay. Thank you."

Hojo chortled. His eyes glimmered. "No...truly, I have much more reason to be thanking YOU."

"What...what're you talking--" And that's when Kagome figured it out.

His laugh. His eyes. They were both so cold.

He continued his low, cold laugh and walked slowly towards her. "Hehehehe..." His voice had changed. This one was high-pitched, cold and cruel and viciously evil.

"You...you aren't Hojo!"

He...IT...stopped. "Hehehe...Oh of course I am, darling..." The voice changed again, mocking that of Hojo. "Darling. Dear darling Kagome. Can't you see it's me?" The cruel laughter came again and the cruel voice as well. "Hehehe...not for long though. Not if that is what I think it is about your pretty little neck...and not if there's no one here to protect you from me...little darling...little darling Kikyo...you are such easy prey in your reincarnated form..." And he lunged for her.

Kagome screamed and dodged. Just she did she saw it's eyes glint as it whirled about to face her and lunge at her again. Clawed hands missed her throat by meer inches. A sudden blow to the gut left her impacted into the cement wall of the building, the wind knocked out of her. Swift, strong arms pinned her there.

"Hehehe...pretty little darling did you really think you could win against Jidoku?" He gently licked a cut on her cheek.

"RAA!" Kagome lunged out, revolted, with her foot but hit nothing but empty air. The demonwas now hovering above her. She could see that whatever Hojo had been, he was no longer. Instead, he had been replaced by something resembling a crocodile in a ninja costume with rubber limbs that stretched endlessly and effortlessly. It's eyes glowed red and it lunged at her once again snapping its teeth. Again she dodged, knowing she couldn't avoid those shining jaws forever.

And then she saw it. The dog-girl's head. And body for that matter.

A blow to her chin sent her flying upward, her backside impacted into the ceiling. She tried to move but couldn't. Jidoku made for her, and she closed her eyes waiting for it to end, wishing she hadn't told InuYasha not to come after her just before she was, killed wishing she'd left the Shikon no Tama with him, hoping it death would come quickly...

But nothing happened. 

With a huge 'ZAP'ing noise the crocodile joukai was sent plumetting into the floor. Kagome wished she hadn't open her eyes for the height made her dizzy. But what suddenly scared her the most was not the height, or the joukai flying at her once again, but the slender, gracefully clawed hands, wrapping themselves about her face and entwining themselves in her hair.

Suddenly the joukai was shocked and sent to Earth once again. Kagome caught sight of a force feild surrounding her, and became aware of a female body of short stature being pressed into her own. "Girl," a deep, glossy, feminine voice whispered in her ear, "you look as if you could use some help."

Kagome shuddered and tried to turn and look at the speaker, but she could not. She was still too far impacted into the ceiling. But slowly, steadily, she could feel the speaker's body pressing into hers and worming them out.

"Do not try to see me. You will only loosen us further." The speaker openly voiced her suspicions. "Now listen to me girl, and you will save us both. Do you feel my hands? Just say yes or no."

"Y...Yes. They're...around my face."

"Good. Now, if you would please offer me your hand." The right palm gestured for Kagome to obey, but she hesitated. "Do not worry," the voice said, sensing her displeasure, "Hurting you is the last thing I'd want to do in my situation." Kagome put her had in that of the speaker and felt it being pressed against a small indentation. 

"Do you feel that, girl?"

Kagome nodded. "Yes."

"Now," the voice said calmly but briskly, "take the Shikon no Tama and put it in there. Trust me, it'll come right out."

Kagome gasped and pulled her hand away. "No! Never!" 

The voice laughed in her ear. It was warm but still as cruel and taunting as Jidoku's. "Then you have condemned us both to death."

Kagome looked it over. She was so scared. Was it really necessary? Could this thing really save her if she freed it? But the Shikon no Tama...this might be just a trick in order to obtain it.

"There are no tricks. I will protect you if you free me. You can trust that. I also have no use for the Shikon no Tama...at the moment. Other than this. You can truat that too."

It had read her mind. "How--?!"

"Better hurry and decide what you're going to do. We'll be faling soon."

And all of Kagome's doubts vanished. She ripped the Shikon no Tama from her neck and jammed it into the indentation.

The was a huge glow and she was ripped from the concrete holding her. She had just barely begun to cry out when something caught her and they crashed through the barrier, landing with a 'tmp' on the wooden floor. 

Kagome looked up, into the face of her savior: a demon girl, with bobbed white hair, black dog ears, and slitted pupils. As she was dropped carelessly onto the floor she saw that the girl was wearing a black 'Yura-style' shirt, red poofy pants and no shoes.

The girl laughed loudly, triumphantly.

"AHAHAHA! FREEDOM!" she cried. 

"FREEEEEDOM!!!" 


	3. Scroll 3 : Nostalgia

**Title:** Sibling Rivalry

**Genre: **InuYasha

**Sub-Genre:** Supernatural/Drama

**Author:** Yohko no Gothika

**Author's Note: Yeah, I've decided to start running things a wee bit differently. You can review and tell me if you like or not. Anyway, the following chapter is set when InuYasha is six. His pet-name for Tamasine--"Futari"--means 'second person' in Japanese.**

**Disclaimer:** InuYasha is property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**Scroll 3 : Nostalgia**

Izayoi was sick and it was aggravating. With his little sister to take care of, InuYasha's ream of chores had become constant and endless, and unbearably maternal to boot. For brief, but progressively more frequent intervals he found himself wishing he were an only child again, and, he began to add, an only child who lived with his father. His mother was always getting sick.

Perhaps it was the fact that he had never really loved any one else. Or perhaps it was, instead, that no one had ever really loved him. Whatever the reason, though, his love and adoration of her never stemmed, no matter how aggravating the tasks left to him. His sister was three; not much help at all, though his mother sent her along with him. "Futari," he'd grunt, calling her by the name he'd given her as a small child, don't do anything. You'd only mess it up." Then, no matter what it was--water from the well or frogs to be rid of in the garden--she'd rush to help him, and, yes, usually messed it up. She was quick learner, despite this (or perhaps thanks to this) and she didn't blunder it quite so often now. _Atleast she wouldn't be one of those girls only interested in marriage_, he found himself thinking when he looked at her. This was a good thing. To be a feminine hanyou was to be weak. Vulnerable. Futari...**Tamasine** couldn't afford to be either of those things. And neither could he.

With time the village boys had begun to accept him much more than their more uppity parents, and he longed to play with his new friends, kicking a well-crafted sack full of hay as a ball amongst the dust of the road between the houses. He was restless, picking listlessly at his work, or doing it quickly, sloppily, so that it had to be done over. It was behavior that both deeply trouble Izayoi from where she stood at the second story window and made her smile in the same instance: her baby boy was beginning to belong. Her little demon was turning into a foolhardy ningen child who wanted only to play every day of his life. It was a pity, she knew it. In this time she needed to talk to him most, she could not for fear of making him ill as well.

It was not long before InuYasha decided he had had enough of chores. He hadn't gone to the village for anything but bartering for a fortnight, and it was driving him mad not to be able to have fun. At the same time he was beginning to worry over his mother's failing health. She could no longer stand or move from her bed without help, and she had increasingly frequent fainting-spells which were entirely unpredictable, so all in all it was safer to keep her in bed for the entire day. Her coughing was getting worse, and it echoed into the empty halls long into the night.

In this huge house, so grandiose that even after several natural disasters and the undeniable shame InuYasha's illegitimate birth had brought upon the Taisho family, two servants were left out of the original thirty who had occupied the estate when Izayoi had been a small child as her own were. Koto and Buntsuchi looked somewhat related, with their long plated amber-black hair, but still looked young. Yet, it was obvious they could not be so young as they looked, when it was the two emerged from their Mistress' room with orders to find her children at once.

"Certainly, she can't be yet on her death bed?" Koto whispered to Buntsuki as they made their way quietly down the hall, and then down the long flight of tatami matted stairs to the first floor.

"I'm not so sure as you," Buntsuki replied, a slight accent in her words. "Izayoi-sama ne'er looked so somber as this before. She's got somethin to tell them...somethin important. I'll find Tamasine-imo, you find InuYasha-kun."

**Author's Note: Buntsuki's addressing of her younger mister and mistress is translated quite plainly as "Little Sister Tamasine", and "InuYasha". As you can see, she is much less polite with them as she is with Izayoi, whom she refers to as 'sama' meaning "My Lord" or "My Mistress".**

Far away, in the heart of the village, a wind had picked up and InuYasha's playmates had scattered as it was discovered to make the 'foot-ball' game impossible. Sullen-faced and sour, the six-year-old made his way home along the river, his two-year-old sister clinging to the left sleeve of his fire-rat cloak. The water looked eerily black and cold for spring, bereft of any life signs whatsoever: neither human nor animal stirred on its banks or in its foamy currents. If it weren't for the wind, InuYasha might have been tempted for the misty spring sunlight that shone over-head was hot. He wasn't, however. The water's fearsome coloration and activity were enough to frighten anyone off. It didn't usually act like this, which was unbearably troubling.

He was interrupted in pondering this by a sharp tug at his elbow and then the soft release of fabric as his sister toddled away from him in stumbling steps, heading towards the embankment of the stretch of river just behind them. "Hey!" he yelled, catching her attention as he ran after her. "What do you think you're doing?" he snapped as he grabbed her about the waist with one arm. "Home is that way!" He gestured avidly at the direction they'd been headed with his free hand.

"Mm!" Tamasine squirmed fitfully in her brother's arms. "Nooo," she whined, stretching her small, chubby arms out at the river bank. "Wandat, wandat!" she pouted, reaching for what InuYasha saw was a lotus on edge of the water.

"What are you, crazy? That's way to close to the water! You could fall in and drown and Mama'd never see you again!"

"Mm!" Tamasine squealed indignantly. "Wandat! Pri-dee!"

**Author's Note: Okay, try to remember that Tamasine is a two-year-old. She's only recently started putting words into sentences, and her speech is pretty jumbled in comparison to her elders. If you're getting confused about what she's saying, either mail me or try prouncing it to yourself. (I guarantee people with younger relatives will have an easier time with this. HINT: It's said how its spelled.)**

InuYasha groaned at his sister's unsatiable childishness. "Ugh! Fine! I'll get it for you!" he grumbled, setting her down. She gave another squeal, much happier this time, and clapped her hands rapidly. Slowly, her older brother made his way down the steep, muddy slope of the river bank towards the pearly white flower on the water's edge. It was a lot more slipper than he remembered. Maybe he shouldn't do this...but then again, one of them would end up doing it. Might as well be him instead of his little sister. Atleast he had a chance if he fell in. And besides, he never saw lotuses around anymore. They were impossible to find at this time of year.

He edged through the muck, towards his goal, and was finally able to feel the soft, velvety green of the flower's stem and began to ease it out of the sludge, careful to avoid damaging its roots or muddy-ing its perfect petals. Without much effort it was done, and he cradled it to his chest as he prepared to go back up again. This was always the hardest part of gardening, his mother told him: to get the flower out, and to get the flower in were two very easy propostitions relative to its tansporation from one place to another. Somehow he managed it without harming the plant. It was his clothing for which any reasonable person would've worried. All down his legs and of his feet were covered with mud. It was drying on the tips of his already waist-length hair, and spattered all over his sleeves and backside. He was thoroughly and unmanageably dirty.

"Ne! InuYasha-kun, totemo kitanai! How is it you have gotten so very filthy?!" Koto's dignified scolding frightened both siblings, and they jumped. They had not expected her to find them so soon. "You should be ashamed, to get so muddy when your mother has no strength to wash you! Butsuki and I shall have to do it!" she tut-tutted reproachfully, scooping them both up in her arms.

"Hey!" InuYasha yelled, disgruntled. "Put me down! I can walk!" He wriggled, trying to get free and in the process muddying Koto's cyan yukata.

"Hmph!" she said, releasing him. "I should say so! You will walk until we can get you clean!"

They made their way steadily homeward, surprising Butsuki at the gate. All of them were atleast a little muddy, and neither servant could see the worth or practicality of allowing them up to their mother's room in such a state. Both were carried (or half-dragged, half-wrestled, in InuYasha's case) to the bathing room on the first floor. The covers were lifted off of the baths and the steam billowed out as both siblings were dunked headfirst into the near-boiling hot water. When they were soaked to the skin, they were lifted onto the floor and scrubbed throroughly with expensive soap that smelled of vanilla, and rinsed with cool water, then dunked once more until their skins were pink with the heat and cleanliness. As soon as they had redressed in new clothes they were sent directly to their mother's room, with softly-uttered orders of silence they found unusually strict.

As soon as they were out of earshot up the stairs they began whisper amongst themselves.

"Whatduh Mama want?" Tama said quietly, turning her fingers once more upon her brother's sleeve, the lotus in her opposite hand.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "She's been really sick lately. Maybe she's getting better."

One cursory into their mother's room, however, clarified that she was most definitely not getting better. If anything she was much worse. The found her hunched against her headbored, coughing laborously into a tightly clenched fist, shivering precariously with the cold of the room. Her beautiful skin was a sickly sort of mustard they had never seen before and her breathing between coughing spasms was harsh and raspy. Her eyes were dull, wet and empty, as if the person behind them were not alive. Her bedclothes were drenched in cold sweat and she looked as if she could pass out at any moment. Her skin of her chest was flaming as both children ran to embrace it.

"Children," she sighed, her voice still sweet as it had always been but by ragged gasps as she breathed. Somehow, she lifted her arms to squeeze them as well, smiling with effort. "My children. I'm so glad to see you."

"Mama..." Tama said nuzzling into the fabric of her mother's silken sash. InuYasha bit down on his lower lip, burying himself in his mother's breasts, refusing to say anything. She kissed him on the top his head, and stroked Tamasine's furry dog-like ears with her hand.

Tamasine, Inuyasha," Izayoi breathed after a while. "You must listen to me. We...I do not have much longer. I am too sick...I have never been this sick before." InuYasha stared up at her, dread in the whole of his face. "You need to be strong...you need to...be prepared to go on...without me." She stopped talking in order to wheeze into a hand she cuped around her mouth just in time. "You need to know," she coughed,"that I love you. That I will always love you. That...you just have to be there for one another. You won't survive if you don't."

"No..." InuYasha murmured."No..."His voice was full of tears. He scorned himself for it. He couldn't cry. Crying was for girls. For babies. For little kids. But he couldn't help it. These words...why his mother saying these things? "Mama...no...you'll be fine...you just...you just..." He didn't know what to say. Why had she called him in here like this? He didn't want to hear this. Why was this happening? His mother couldn't die. Not here. Not now. No. She _wouldn't_ die. There had to be something...anything he could do. He'd do it. Just to have his mother. His dear sweet mother who was more beautiful than anything in the world.

This world...would end without her.

Tama looked up at them both without a word as she fondled her mother's waist, and the lotus lay forgotten on her lap once they were issued from the room.

-----

He woke later that night to the sounds of muffled wails from his mother's room and the _shif-shuf_ of zori as her corpse was carried from the house, the whit lotus blossom on her chest. Despite himself, he once more began to cry. He lay, curled beneath the suffocating warmth of his own blanket until he fell into another deep slumber, his cheeks wet with tears.

-----

In an instant, InuYasha's entire universe was flipped upside down. Even with their emtoional and spiritual dedication to their mistresses' now orphaned children, Koto and Butsuki were siezed up as property by the local state with their lady's death, and forced to leave. All InuYasha had left now was his home and his younger sister. The house was empty except for the two of them. The nights were lonely and they soon ran out of food. Out of desperation InuYasha turned to his friends, and then to thievery. The garden was left in immense disrepair as neither had ever truly learned to grow food for themselves and they both simply struggled to get to out of bed in the morning but for hunger. The loneliness of being orphaned was unbearable.

One night, InuYasha abandoned his bed, propping himself up near the wide, pane-less window. He tugged the straw screen down over it, finding the wind irratating and quickly fell asleep, his head lolled to one side, his back pressed against the hard cedar of his wall. It was a very light sort of sleep, only a soft cover from which to withdraw from the world, but it came easy, which was something that was no longer common. InuYasha felt that he actually enjoyed the feel of it, and proposed to do this more often before drifting ever deeper until the darkness enveloped him and he succumbed once more to fitfull dreams of lotus flowers, and wrathful rivers of ink.

He was awakened by a slight but perpetual nudging at his shoulder. "Oniisan..." he heard through the dark. "Oniisan...Wake upeez."

He groaned, and sat up groggily, staring into his younger sister's pale face. "What Tamasine?" he slurred, still partially asleep, disregarding her nickname because at the moment he was not bothering to recall it. "What is it?"

"Mama's gone."

At this he woke much more abruptly than he had been planning to.

"What did you say?"

"Mama's gone," she repeated unhappily. "Not in room. Ha'scary dweem. Wentuh see her. She not there. Mama's gone."

InuYasha stared at her. "Way to go kid. Congratulations. She's only been gone for 4 months, you little moron. Gawd, don't you know anything?" he snapped finally. She could be so dumb. 'Mama's gone'?! How long did it tak e her to realize that?! He glared at her with the questing sorrowful look on his younger sister's face. "Stupid!" He pointed to the full moon angrily. "She's been gone for four of those! And she's not coming back! So thanks for noticing! I mean, why did you think we've been all alone? Because she left on an errand? You're so stupid!"

There was crowded silence between them as Tamasine still looked at him with tears and questions in her eyes, and he glared back venomously. "Where she go? Where did Mama go?" she said finally.

"I don't know! But she's not here! She's never gunna be here ever, ever again! So just go back to your room!"

Tama watched him as the tears began to fall, and InuYasha's anger began to smolder against his will. _Stupid...she's so stupid. I shouldn't feel bad...I don't feel bad! I mean...I'm only telling her the truth. Mama isn't coming back. It's her own fault for being stupid. But maybe...maybe I shouldn't have yelled at her...What am I saying? She deserved it! She deserved to be yelled at! That's what she gets for being stupid!_

"I thought I said to get out of my room!" he yelled, making her jump. She hesitated, before scrambling out the door, down the hall and slamming her own.

-----

He couldn't sleep.

He hated this. It was so stupid. Why did he feel bad? Maybe he shouldn't have yelled. Mama would've said she was just a little kid and she couldn't help it if their were things she didn't understand. "Your sister needs your help InuYasha, not your repremands. That's what I'm here for."

But now she wasn't here. No one was here. No one was going to help him. Tama was all he had.

Maybe he should...go talk to her. She had ceased crying about twenty-minutes ago, and their confrontation was past by hours. She had only just turned two-and-a-half. She didn't know any better than what he could teach her. Oh...why did have to feel so bad?

His legs wouldn't listen to him as he told them to stop as they carried him down the hall, slowly plodding towards his sister's room. He didn't need to apologize. There was nothing to apologize for. She deserved it...she shouldn't have been so stupid.

The door opened with his breath and he found Tama sitting on her bed, her back turned to him. He walked, scowling to the foot of her matress, hauling himself up upon it by the sheets. It quivered beneath him as he did so, but Tama did not move from where she sat, curled over her knees in its center. He poked her and she did not move. She was asleep.

He sighed and got down again, but couldn't bring himself to leave to room. He watched her small sides rise and fall with her slow breathing and couldn't turn away. He reached up and touched her again from the side of the bed, softer this time, with his whole hand. She was warm. So comfortingly warm. Without really thinking, he mimicked what his mother had always done when the two used to share a bed. Carefully he wriggled the bedclothes out from under her and brought them up over her shoulders, lifting her small head and placing it on the feather-down pillow provided for such a purpose. She slept through it all. Like him, she was a very sound sleeper.

He yawned involuntarily and settled himself beneath her already shaded window, slipping into the half-sleep he had found earlier that night, basking in it.

He was awakened just a few moments later by light footsteps and warm body clinging to his neck and snuggling under his chin. He inhaled the soft vanilla scent of Tama's hair and hugged her to him absently, still half asleep. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. She did not seem to hear him.

The two slept in the same way for the rest of their lives together: InuYasha propped against the wood beneath a window, Tama curled in his lap, embracing him with all she had.

-----

**OVER 50 YEARS LATER, IN THE WARRING STATES PERIOD OF MEDIEVAL JAPAN**

InuYasha scanned the horizon from the branches of his tree, a troubled look on his usually-confident face. "Weird..." he mumbled. "I think Kagome...might be in trouble."

"Well then go help her, fool!" InuYasha jumped, momentarily startled at Shippo's appearance in his lap. "Why should I?" He growled, recovering himself. "She said not to come after her, and I don't see any good reason to disobey."

"Oh come on! If you think she's in trouble go get her! You've never listened to her before, why start now?!" Shippo was freaking out.

InuYasha cocked an eyebrow and lifted Shippo up by his tail. "Because that girl just told me to take a well deserved vacation. That's why. Besides, its probably nothing. I just need to pee or something."

Shippo sighed and gave InuYasha a grin. He had hoped he wouldn't have to resort to this, but oh well. "Oh, okay. Just don't go ape on me when you figure out Kagome's been eaten and the entire Shikon no Tama is floating in the guts of some worthless demon wannabe."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" InuYasha screeched at the top of his voice. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WAS SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!!" Shippo yelled back, terrified but resolute. "GET OUT THERE AND SAVE YOUR WOMAN!!!"

"**WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!**" InuYasha thundered. Shippo screamed and dashed away, towards the Bone Eater's Well but stopped short when he came to its edge. InuYasha, prepared to pounce upon his young friend, overleapt and tumbled into the depths of the well. Shippo could barely hear the foul language the older hanyou hurled back at him as he disappeared into the darkness. "Doo itashimashite," Shippo smiled.

-----

Kagome looked up at her savior, not quite sure what to think or do. The girl couldn't have been more than her age, but was shorter by about half a head. Her white hair glowed in the lighting, made faulty by the attacking demon, and it curled around the edges of her face, as if it were clinging to her without actually doing so. Two small, pointed black ears poked out of it. She wore a black, Yura-style shirt and poofy, fade-red capris that looked like a shorter version of InuYasha's, tied about the waist with a wide, blood-red sash that stretched from the top of her hips to just below her small bust. Kagome suddenly realized how similar the two looked: the ears, the hair, the pants...the girl even had claws and fangs like InuYasha! But she mentally shook herself for having such thoughts. A relationship between them was impossible. InuYasha lived in the Feudal Era...that had been over a century ago!

The girl put her hands on her small hips and chuckled. "My, not much to look at now are you?" she said loftily to the attacking Jidoku. "I've played with ugly things before, but you take the cake." The wounded demon, growled as picked himself up. "Watch your tongue wench," he snarled. The girl smirked. "You and I both know thats physically impossible. And besides, who's to make me? Not you, that's for certain."

"WE'LL SEE!!" the joukai roared, and he lunged for her. She dodged to the right, avoiding the blow with an offbalance, unsuspecting sort of ease, then dissapeared to reappear, balanced on one bare foot atop the astounded demon's outstretched arm, her own arms folded behind her head. "You mind if I take this guy out?" she said, turning to Kagome for the first time. Kagome, still in a slight state of shock, shook her head.

"Awesome." She cracked her fingers. "I've got to reorientate myself one way or another."

Jidoku, a look of strangled fury on his face, let out another bellow and swiped at the girl on his arm, but, unfortunately for him, this time she was ready. She sqautted and leapt into the air, his strike missing her completely. He swung an arm back to grab her, but again, to his dismay, she was ready.

"CLAW DAGGERS!" she yelled, and swung her raised arm down in an arc. She tumbled out of the air with the force of it, but not before making a large gash on the monster's arm. She landed, feet first, against the wall and sprang once again for her opponent.

Kagome's mind raced. This girl was like InuYasha...there was no doubt. But she was just so much more graceful. He might've crashed into that wall just to prove he could survive it, but she either had more brains than he did or a smaller ego. She was alot more acrobatic. Suddenly something struck her. She had said that this girl could kill the demon...but wasn't the demon Hojo? "Oh no..." she gaped.

But it was too late. Jidoku, bellowing in pain, swung again at her but missed by a long shot. "CLAWS OF EXORSISM!" she screamed, coming down on his body instead of his arms.

Jidoku let out a final blood-choked yell and fell to the floor.

-----

InuYasha knocked the door to the well shrine open with his knuckles, the eerily strong evening wind immeadiatly taking the opporitunity to whip his face. He brushed his bangs aside irritably. "That idiot Shippo..." he grumbled. "I swear I'll get him for this. There's not anything remotely wrong with Kagome."

Sota came outside at that moment, carrying a lethargic Buyo and a watering can. " 'Kagome's not home yet Sota...' 'Do her chores for her Sota...' 'Not like I have any consideration for you Sota...' 'Take the cat out and water the plants Sota...' Darn it, when she gets back, I swear I'll get her for this," he grumbled. He abruptly stopped when he noticed InuYasha's presence. A big grin stretched itself across his face. "Hey InuYasha. What brings you here?" InuYasha gave an incoherent grunt. "Shippo," he said finally.

Sota set Buyo on the ground, and set about to watering the plants, still talking to his half-demon friend. "Well, if you're looking for Kagome, you'd better check at the college. She hasn't come home yet, and Mom's really worried. And if you want to know the truth, I am too, kinda. Just not all too happy about having to do her chores is all." InuYasha looked down at him, his eyebrows raised. Sota turned to the street behind them both. "Okay see this street?" he said pointing. "Now you go that way" he pointed right "turn that way" he pointed left "and keep going straight until you reach the biggest building you've ever seen!" he said, exagerated the height with his hands and arms. "It's white, can't miss it."

"Okay, hopefully I can manage that." InuYasha sighed, face contorted in a look of disgust. _'I can't believe I actually have to go pick up Kagome at school. Give me a break. Isn't that what her mother's for?'_

A sudden gust of wind caught him off guard with a smell he hadn't smelled here in a long time. Demon blood. It was only a tinge of scent, a miniscule tainting of the breeze, but he could smell it. Lots of demon blood. Coming from the direction of Kagome's school. He raced off without a moment's hesitation, forgetting Shippo's directions and whole-heartedly following his nose. He grinned as he caught a whiff of Kagome in the air as well, and cracked his kuckles mid-flight. This could be alot more fun than he had first suspected.

-----

The dog-girl landed on the floor and stretched her arms upwards, towards the ceiling. "Ah...now THAT feels good," she sighed, her vertibrae popping. She looked back on a horror-struck Kagome. "What in the seven hells is the matter with you?"

"You...you KILLED him..." Kagome murmered.

"Very observant."

"But...you...you didn't have to KILL him..."

"What'd you want me to do, give him a hug? Anyway, this makes you and I almost even. You free me, I do something for you, that's the way it goes."

Kagome's lip trembled. "Poor Hojo..." She should've gone out with him. Or helped him find someone else. She should've done something...anything. He didn't deserve this.

The dog-girl sighed. "Oh come on. Don't tell me it had a name. What are you, some idiot miko or soemthing?" Suddenly she stopped and looked at Kagome for the first time. She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes slightly. "...What'd you say your name was again?"

Kagome looked up. "Me? My name? Oh, it's--"

Suddenly the two were interrupted by a louded rumbling from above them, and they both looked up. The girl suddenly grabbed Kagome by the waist and bowled her over. A large chunk of cement ceiling hit the floor with a ear-splintering thud, and both girls shielded their eyes, coughing at the dust. There was suddenly a loud crash as the alunimum elevator hit the floor and crumple into a distorted heap of metal. More hunks of conrete fell all around them and falling equipment missed them by inches.

"KAGOME!" hollered a familiar voice down the elevator shaft. Kagome choked back fear and replaced it with unbridaled rage. "This BETTER be an ugly joke Sota's playing or I swear..." she muttered to herself. The dog girl looked at her curiously, but she ignored it.

InuYasha, hair flowing, landed on the remains of the elevator and jumped onto the ground. He sniffed once. Yep, she was definitely here. He noticed the carcass of a demon and walked over. It's blood was just barely dry; it couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes."Hmph," he grunted, giving it a kick. Must've come after the Shikon no Tama. No small wonder either. She should've left it with him. He folded his arms and started sniffing. "That's weird..." he grumbled. "It smells like...nah! Couldn't be."


	4. Scroll 4 : Of Past and Present, Part I

**Title:** Sibling Rivalry

**Genre: **InuYasha

**Sub-Genre:** Supernatural/Drama

**Author:** Yohko no Gothika

**Author's Note: We're rollin right over into the next one guys. Oh yeah, and I am aware I spelled something consistently wrong last chapter; "Buntsuki". That is how I originally intended it to be spelled. It shouldn't be a big deal, but whatever. Just so you people know I know. Oh, and another thing I've noticed is the title for the fic is already taken! _Shimatta_! Anywho, I'm going to want reviewers to cue the suggestions, eh? Now, onward to victory! Or the new chapter, whatever you choose to call it.**

**Disclaimer:** InuYasha is property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**Scroll 4 : Of Past and Present (_or_ The Siblings Are Reunited, Part I)**

"Smells...no...no way...ugh! I hate this future!" InuYasha couldn't get over it. It annoyed him to no end. It smelled...it smelled like _her_. He blanched, grimacing. What was making it smell like this? Who could possibly mimic that overwhelmingly familiar scent of love? The sweet, unbearable odor of trust and wet leaves that held so many precious memories? Why did he smell this, amongst the backdrop of concrete and demon blood and Kagome? He had known months ago, when Kaede told him, that he would never again know that scent. That it would always be faint whenever he did, worn away by half a century.

He would never see his sister again.

He dismissed it. It was a mistake. It had to be. His sister...was no longer in this world. For all he knew she could've long vanished from the next. But her smell...surely, it wouldn't be here. It had to be a mistake. He gave up trying to think over what could possibly awaken such an odor in this foul place, and put it out of his mind. There were more important things to worry over. Kagome, for instance. He sniffed for her, the scent like his sister's filling his nostrils once more. Damn! Why was it so pungent? He would never sniff Kagome out of it!

A coughing to his left made him aware that he had been relieved of this duty, as Kagome stood from the rubble, her hand over her mouth as she hacked into it. "InuYasha...you...idiot!" she sputtered through her coughing fit. "I told you...not !" Still breathing hard from coughing so much she brushed herself off indignantly, the dust billowing off of her dark green turtleneck and pink skirt.

"What are you talking about wench?! You could've been killed!" he shouted back in her direction, Tessaiga held lightly over his other shoulder. He had rushed here partially to help her, and she was SCOLDING him?! Who did she think she was, getting all in a huff over nothing?

"We were just _fine_ until you came along!" she retorted, hands on her hips. "Without you we might've been alot better off, you pig-headed moron!"

He was about to respond, when something about what she had just said caught his attention. Her raised a skeptical brow. " '_We_'? " That would mean there was more than one of her, right?

"Ah!" Kagome realized she'd been referring to both her and Dog-Girl. "Well...yeah. Um...you see...well..." This was going to be REALLY difficult to explain. But then, if she was going to explain it to anyone, this was probably the easiest it was going to get. She doubted a inu-hanyou girl hung from the ceiling would have much effect on InuYasha at all. In fact, he might be the best person to tell. He had been pinned to a tree for fifty years. It couldn't possibly weird him out that much that there were others with similar problems. She might as well try.

A large chunk of cement besides was shoved aside, and Dog-girl emerged from rubble. She stood and shook herself in a dog-like fashion, spattering cement dust all over the place. She stood up fully now, giving her head an experimental shake to see if she was even moderately clean. "Whew! Dusty." She gave a quick sneeze into her open palm. "Bleh, I be smelling that for months!" She flicked her ears, and then seemed to finally catch site of InuYasha. Her eyes widened substantially as did his, and they simply stared at each other for several moments, completely rigid and oblivious to Kagome's questioning glances between the two of them.

"Holy shit," Dog-Girl said, stumbling backwards but never once breaking their locked gazes. InuYasha's lip trembled beneath gritted teeth. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. This had to be an illusion or something. That it! It had to be the demon! It was mocking him, mocking his sister's body, pretending to be something that it wasn't. He clenched his jaw and fists more tightly in a rage. How dare that piece of scum...He would make it pay dearly for this. That thing would not fool him with such a disgustingly accurate replica of her.

"RAA!" he cried viciously, lunging for her, his claws extended. She yelped and ducked just in time and he crashed into the wall behind her. Unfazed, he rose and lunged for her once more, completely engulfed in fury and anguish. How dare they...!

The girl whipped around just in time to see him come at her again. Evil spirits! That demon had had more nerve than she'd thought! An illusion...this had to be a trick! But the smell...the voice...how was he doing this so convincingly? InuYasha had been gone...for a very long time. Her brother, her only, was dead. At the moment, it was all she could remember. But this girl...this girl brought memories back too. Memories of that day. Horrid memories...no! She couldn't let them fool her! This wasn't be her brother! It couldn't be! She had to fend him off, no matter how bad it felt. Her brother...her wonderful _oniisan_...

She dodged quickly, avoiding his blows once more, but caught him with a speedy elbow jab to the stomach, catching his wrist and flicking ever so slightly that he tumbled over it, flipping and crashing into the ground. Pleased with herself for catching him off gaurd she slashed downwards with claws but he caught her arm mid-swing and proceeded to fling her through the air towards the opposite wall. She squealed unpleasantly and jabbed her clawed fingers into the wooden, using them to screech to a hault before she hit it. The sound of her voice gave InuYasha's stomach an unpleasant jolt as he scrambled to his feet. It was mimicking her words as well? Ooh, he would make it pay.

She leapt into the air using her hand and he followed, voraciously wanting to hurt whatever was mocking him now. It was copying all of her move, her words, her body language, and it was intolerable. How dare it mock...mock _her_. She grabbed the collar of his robes and attempted to rip them away from his skin, but he yanked backward, **hard**, so that she lost her grip and flew over him, heading towards the ground below. She flipped, and both landed on their feet. He glared at her over his shoulder, and she glared back. How dare...how dare...

Kagome watched from where she stood against the wall near the elevator, absolutely mortified. "Omigod..." she whispered to herself. What was going on? One minute they couldn't take their eyes off one another, the next they were engaed in the battle of the century. She looked from one to the other, as the two exchanged thoroughly nasty looks.

What was going on?

-----

Sango stared into the late summer sunset, stroking a purring Kirara on her lap. She was worried. Shippo had told her of InuYasha's going to the past over a half-an-hour ago. It wasn't like him to stay in Kagome's time for so long. Very unsettling, really. To her right, Miroku slowly chewed an apple, propped against his staff, musing over the same thing. What was taking their hanyou friend so long to return from a "rescue mission" he had judged completely unimportant? In retrospect, trouble was usually the only thing that stalled him in Kagome's time. But then, what could they do? None of them could make the journey through the well. It was just a matter of time, they supposed, until they got word of what was going on, one way or another.

Shippo was the most distressed out of all of them. Had he been right? Was Kagome-chan really in danger? Ugh! Why hadn't that idiot InuYasha gotten up an done something about it sooner?! The fool! The young fow youkai chewed his bottom lip unpleasantly, hoping to all that were divine would be sure to get their Kagome back safe. He hated when she wasn't around. Over the years the two had journeyed about as comrades, she had become like an older sister to him. He could only hope that InuYasha would protect her, and that his oaf of a companion had reached her in time.

-----

InuYasha, however, was engaged in a fierce battle with a demon that was pretending to be his late sister.

He removed Tessaiga from its sheath, and swung it at her with great ferocity, only to find that he had slashed through air and she was headbutting him. He fell backwards, his forehead bruised only slightly, but recovered quickly and slashed again. She appeared on top his blade this time, glaring at him disgustedly before bringing her claws in a direct attack on his face. He ducked and she missed, going with him, and was thrown off balance. Taking an opporitunity, he dropped the sword and punched for her with his right fist, only to be met by the _clap_ of skin on skin as she caught and countered with her opposaite hand. He caught it in the same fashion and they had finally come to an impass. Venomous electricity flowed between the two.

"Evil thing...!" she seethed through clenched teeth. "Pretending to be my brother!"

"I'm pretending?! You're pretending!"

"Liar!"

"Who's lying? Come off it! My sister died a long time ago! You can't fool me!" InuYasha yelled, his tone become less angry and more desperate.

"So did...my brother. You claim to be him, how can you be?! He was killed...by..."

There was an eerie silence as the two stared at each other, dumbstruck. "How...how can this be? You can't be him...he...you..." Dog-Girl was speechless and stuttering. There was no way...no way in hell...

InuYasha stared up at her. "Kaede told me...you died a year after..."

"Oh my god...InuYasha?" Both released their hold on one another and stood fully upright, staring in awe. "Can it...Is it really...oh my god! InuYasha!" She leapt forward and embraced him tightly around the waist, sending them both to the ground. Neither cared. He hugged her to him, not believe it but wanting it so badly to be true. "Oniisan! How is this?! How is it you're alive?!" she cried in his ear, nuzzling into his soft silver hair. "I saw you die...I saw Kikyo pin you to that tree! Can this be true?! Can you really be here, in my arms again?!" She was hysterical. This couldn't be happening. It was impossible. But if only it were true! If only this were really happening! The joy flooded her for the first time in ageless centuries. Her beloved _oniisan_...her wonderful _oniisan_...please let this be true!

He could feel her in his arms. "I know...I know...! And Kaede told me that you went mad! That you were killed in a rampage of your own doing, trying to get me free. By an arrow. Imouto...where have you been? I've missed you so much!" _I've been alone for so long._

"I know...I..." She sighed. "It's a really long story. Yours too?"

"Yeah...but worth summarizing."  



	5. Scroll 5 : Of Past and Present, Part II

**Title:** Hitori, Futari -- My Brother, My Dream (_previously "_Sibling Rivalry)

**Genre: **InuYasha

**Sub-Genre:** Supernatural/Drama

**Author:** Yohko no Gothika

**Author's Note: Okay, I know the last one was kind of a trauma-drama kind of thing, but I really couldn't think of a way to reunite them that wasn't. I also have a new name for the fic! I'll call it _Hitori, Futari--My Brother, My Dream. _So yeah. Anyways, I have a treat for you all: I'm an artist, and I've decided to draw you an actual picture of Tama! It's at the address below:**

http(colon)(slash-slash)www(dot)geocities(dot)com(slash)rodentia772

Well then, here we go. Have fun and review pretty please. This chapter'll be set mostly in the past so we can learn about Tamasine's demise. Just a warning. We're also going with the assumption that Kaede was around 10 when Kikyo died. Therefore it is one year after InuYasha was pinned to a tree and all that. So yeah.

**Disclaimer:** InuYasha is property of Rumiko Takahashi.

Hitori, Futari : Oniichan, Watashi no Yume

**Scroll 5 : Remembrance (_or _The Siblings are Reunited, Part II)**

Kaede stared into the summer mist of the new June day. The young 11-year-old miko sighed, deeply, and stood from where she had just placed lilies near the grave of her deceased older sister, Kikyo. She hurried away, down the stone steps and into the courtyard, her small red hakama flapping in the slight breeze that smelled so deeply of water and salt. It was coastal, she decided absently, walking down the road towards her hut. As she entered through the straw flap over the door way, she made her way over to her newest patient, an old woman the village boys had found collapsed near the outskirts. Her comatose state did not bode well; it would seem she suffered from _grand mal_ seizures, a condition for which, Kaede knew, there was no known cure. Paired with the woman's obvious age, her condition was quite dire, and it did not seem as if she would last much longer. Kaede wondered, in fact, if one day the woman would simply turn to dust, without waking and without cause. She seemed so very old and frail.

With yet another sigh, she turned from the woman's bedside after giving her water and tended to her only other real patient: a maimed 8-year-old boy who called himself Kaemon, who by some demon had had the skin of his shoulder thoroughly torn. He was unscrupulously irritable today, and was complaining endlessly as she changed his bandages. Between the two of them, it was he that goaded her most, and personally she couldn't wait until he was well enough to leave. His monstrously aggravating temperament surprised her greatly; his mother was one of the kindest and most polite women you would ever meet. It had to be his father, she guessed. Or maybe it was the fact that the child was only one survivor out of quadruplets. His only remaining sister had passed away 3 months ago. Sweet girl.

She left the hut as morning shown more clearly through the fading mist, the boy going back to sleep for boredom. Trudging up the road she passed many a street merchant. It was Saturday, Market Day, and the whole village bustled with it. Carts of homemade goods rattled up and down the street towards their destinations. Cattle and other livestock made quite a ruckus amongst themselves as they were bartered off to friends and neighbors. Fresh grown produce was traded and exchanged, and salesmen of a foreign nature gathered on street corners by the dozen, attempting to be rid of their imported goods. Despite herself Kaede smiled lightly. Such a village she lived in.

She made her way, once more, up the stone steps of the shrine, under the _Torii_, and made her way through the masses swarming in the courtyard. Market Day was Gawker's Day as well; all that came with hopes of selling were also sure to visit the grave of the famed Kikyo, Guardian of the Shikon no Tama. It was a tourist attraction. Smile abandoned, Kaede scowled at the thought. Her sister...a tourist attraction. Disgusting.

She, however, continued past the crowded gravesite to a low-to-the-ground building beyond, stepped onto the deck, removed her _zori_ and slid the door open. She _shiho_ walked into the room, checking that she was its only entree, and slid the door closed as quickly as if it had not been open at all. The tatami floor shivered beneath her, and she patted it with reassuring feet as she made her way to the lower floor. All those except for the door guards had been let off duty for the day, and she proceeded by them with a curt and wary nod. They always had to be careful on these days. Accidents were prone to happen when they were the least prepared like this.

She slid past them and creaked the heavy doors open, closing them as soon as she had gone through, and coming upon yet another hallway, this one completely devoid of any occupants. Only the soft candle light filtered through the dark passageway as she met yet another pair of doors. She swallowed her anxiety as best she could with one loud gulp, then lifted the bar off the door, and pressed against the smooth would so that it slid open.

She walked in, her footsteps and slow against the straw-mat flooring as she closed the door behind her with a slight _clik_, and moved to the small, foot by foot window in the right wall of the room, raising its shade so that a small bit of light and fresh wind filtered in to the stale space. She glanced shyly over at the room's lone occupant, who had not moved since her arrival. The woman, small, pale, stared back at her beneath a curtain of silver hair, amber eyes dull and glassy. Kaede watched her for a moment before walking to kneel beside her. "You're very quiet today Tamasine-san," she said softly. _Then again_, she thought, _it's not as if she ever manages to say anything worth hearing anymore. Poor thing. She had such a good heart too._

The girl had never been the same since her brother died. Ever since the villagers had had to knock her out in order to keep her from murdering them all, she'd been like this; nearly lifeless, silent and unresponsive. Every once in a while she'd be heard to scream absolutely meaningless gibberish, or say things that made Kaede want to cry for what she meant, but she no longer spoke to anyone in particular. She was emotionless and still, engulfed in sorrow and anguish for her brother's passing. She was only still alive out of pity.

Out of pity, they had constructed this place for her. Out of pity, they had imprisoned her just beyond the grave of her brother's killer. Out of pity, they had kept her alive when she did not want to live, fed when she wanted to starve. It was a horrid existence, Kaede knew. Cursed to live, soulless and incomplete, without meaning. Tamasine-san was no more. The young woman of 16 years she cared for was an empty shell, rotting and withering away into nothingness and insanity.

It was not often Kaede felt as much pity for anything as she did for Tamasine-san.

Really, she had not been sure why, at first. This girl...her brother had murdered Kikyo, her wonderful _oneesan_. Didn't she deserve to be punished for her sibling's actions? At first, Kaede's answer was yes. But this was too much. Tamasine-san was a person too. No person alive deserved to be punished this way.

Kaede sighed, once more, receiving no response to her comment and took a small comb and a small parcel from inside her top. "Here," she said gently, unwrapping the parcel, and revealing its rice-ball contents. "You can eat these, while I comb out your hair alright?" She knew Tamasine-san would not. The _hanyou_ ate very seldom, and only when she was certain she was completely alone. Kaede dismissed it. Better to have tried than not. She went around the back of her 'patient' and brought the long silver tresses out from over Tamasine's shoulders, so that every piece of hair hung down her bony back. Kaede started at the bottom and worked upward, encountering few tangles, despite the obvious disrepair of it all. The _hanyou_ didn't move around enough to get any tangles.

-----

Tamasine sat, cross-legged, staring blankly at the wall, thinking nothing. Kaede had left several minutes before, but Tamasine did not acknowledge it. She never acknowledged anything any more. Nothing was worth acknowledging. The fading light flickering down into her 'window' from the world above told her it must be near sundown. Sundown...a word she remembered and yet could no longer apply to anything recognizable. One of her dark ears flicked ever so slightly and she listened to the echoes of evaporating chatter. She shifted her gaze upwards so that she could peer at the ceiling. Yes, she remembered which one it was. As soon as the light had disappeared and the noises were gone she would go back.

'_Restlessness_' had no more place in her ever shrinking vocabulary. She waited with unwavering and irrefutable patience, staring at the wall with no more thoughts in her head but one, waiting as the sky finally extinguish itself and the laughter faded into the voices of the cicadas, singing noisily to one another in baritone. She listened for yet another half-an-hour after that, and was finally satisfied.

She stood, balancing on her two feet as she crept, wobbly, to the wall, heaving herself upon it. She gripped it firmly, claws digging expertly into the bamboo, and scrambled up its slick, vertical surface, until she found herself dangling neatly from the ceiling, clinging with both toes and fingers. She glanced about and then, finding her target, wormed her slim hand into an trivial flap in the tiled weaving. It slid open neatly, and she scrambled up, head first, onto the boarded rafters of the ceiling, sliding it back in place behind her. She sniffed lightly, tasting the air. Yes, she could smell it. The grass and the leaves and the light dampness of a clear starry night. _Joukai_...once again she could smell it.

She felt about in the blackness for the worn wooden rungs of a ladder built into the side of the vertical dirt tunnel she know found herself in. She felt one bottom and gripped it tightly, groping for the next with her opposite hand. Holding one tightly, she swung herself upward, holding onto the ladder with only her hands, climbing the way up with only her upper body. At what she knew to be halfway up she tired of this and let her feet find their own rungs, and continued upwards.

Her head touched on a slight wooden surface above and she nearly smiled, but could not. She no longer remembered how. Instead she reached up with both hands, finding her feet on the same wrung, and pushed hard against the new wooden obstruction, which easily came loose, and she clambered out of her hole. She was in the _Niwaurushi_ now, a large tree, made hollow by fearsome burning. Almost there.

She could feel the moonlit spatters on her face as she again began a steep climb out, only made possible by her claws. Finding the knot, she pressed it, and a hole, like that of an owl's dwelling appeared before her. It was twice as large however, easily big enough through which to squeeze her narrow frame. She slid through it, crouching and looking down, preparing to leap. She did so, tumbling with grace from a great height, and landing with skill on her feet with a small _tmp_ of skin on bark.

Tamasine sniffed about in triumph. The trees surrounding her waved and cheered, their leaves applauding her excellent performance. "_Shitari! Oya!_" the cicadas called out to her. "Unbelievable! How did she do it?" She smirked inwardly at their incredulity. So easily impressed, cicadas.

She inhaled the night deeply, tasting the leaves and stars in the sky of the surrounding forest. The smell was salty and fresh, beautiful and bereft of any hint of dust or lonely death. The scent welcomed her back, waving its gargantuan hands in her face, embracing her with soft, harboring arms. She could it feel it kissing the flesh of her cheeks with gentle, caressing lips of breeze, and licked at it hungrily, hoping for a but a nibble of flavor on its part, feeling it briefly on her outstretched, starving tongue.

She felt the mossy earth below her bare feet, giving beneath her like elastic. She purred, full of unexplained joviality. It was a perfect night to run.

-----

Tamasine's calf muscles rippled and bunched beneath her shallow, pallid skin as her legs pounded the ground endlessly and effortlessly like pistons. She dodged the branches as they threw themselves at her, and leaves as they ambushed her footsteps. A rabbit, eyes glassy with death brought just minutes ago, spoke to her in a soothing whisper. "_The air is so quiet tonight. So quiet. Like you._" She ignored it as she ignored everything else.

She wanted to eat it, as she had first intended. To feel its blood dribble down her chin was a sensation she craved more than anything at the moment. A terrible, insatiable desire. She needed to find somewhere to bid it silent. It was pleading for its life, wasn't it? Yes. It had to be. Why else would it speak to her? Sure of her decision to end its begs for mercy and satisfy her own bloodlust, she sniffed for a spot of emptiness, free of the taunting bodies of tree trunks.

She found one in very little time. Empty, devoid of sound but for the slow chatter of leaves and stone tile. She sat upon them, disregarding the buildings on either of her sides, and the small cement house to her left, and pierced her claws deeper into the rabbit's fleshy neck. She bathed in its squeals of terror as she removed them and nibbled at the gore dribbling down into her nail beds. The fur was rough, matted with dirt as she sank her fangs into it, ripping through to the flesh beneath.

The blood had been drying on her nose for several minutes before she realized the nearing sound of soft breathing and the _cluk clak _of wooden _zori_ on pavement, and the rustle of clothe on clothe _yukata_. She could smell the deep scent of lilac perfume mixed with the subtle, bitter odor of rice and alcohol. Scowling she stood and wiped the crimson from her chin, tossing the vermin she had shredded to bone and ribbons of muscle into the bushes. She turned to leave. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her tortured mind, she recognized the danger of having privileges revoked just fine, whether she knew it or not. To be out here was a privilege no one but she could ever know about. She prepared to run…

"Ah! Hey! _Onnanohito_!"

Too late.

The speaker was a young woman, middle height, with long, ugly hair that stretched like greasy ink to the center of her back, oozing over her shoulders. By the breath of her husky, slightly wobbling voice that it was she who smelt ever so faintly of _sake_. There was another, right beside her, slightly more attractive though not by much. Shorter though. Darker.

With no response from Tamasine, they turned and began to whisper amongst themselves.

"What do you think?" Shortie murmured.

"Well she certainly is a looker."

"No, no. I mean, they said no one was up here. And no one passed us. This is the only way up here—"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous. There must be. That preist's story's gone to your head!"

"But the girl…the demon's _imouto_…don't you remember what he said? Long white hair, eye's like ice, no voice and lithe movement like that of her wolven brothers! Certainly you can see the resemblance…!"

"To his fair tales, perhaps, but to reality it has no relevance. There is no truth in that rubbish he told this night, Mari-chan!" They turned to face her.

"But those ears! Surely she is a demon!"

Tamasine watched, unmoved, uncomprehending. Voices…so fast, so many words. Did she understand this? Did she understand what they were saying? This language…she had known this language once. Spoken these words. What was she hearing? Her brain was slow to translate the meaning of this familiar dialogue. They were…these things…these things were speaking of her?

"Well…"

"Certainly you can see! The ears…they're like…like…"

"His."

"That demon menace that murdered Kikyo in an attempt to steal the _Shikon no Tama_!"

"Yes! Him!"

"Yes…that wretch."

"**InuYasha.**"

With that name, that one word, something stung deeply in the center of Tamasine's chest. She felt her head go cold and everything go suddenly white. She was freezing, plummeting and yet standing still. What was happening? What did this one word bring back to her? She was so close to remembering something…something precious…something terrible. Something was striking her again and again, so painful, penetrating her skin, piercing her heart in a thousand places as it struck her back, her shoulder, her torso. Why? This pain…she was so dizzy. This name…'InuYasha'…all these memories came flooding back and yet…she could not grasp them. They were there; just visible and yet out of reach. 'InuYasha'…

"And his sister went mad—"

"And ripped the hearts from half the villagers present—"

"And threatened to do it Kaede-sama as well."

"But then one of the boys—"

"Kine was his name..?"

"He knocked her unconscious with the hilt of his sword—"

"And they locked her away in a room beneath the temple—"

"But can this really be her!"

They stared at her with wide eyes as the world spun. What was wrong with them? Couldn't they feel how fast and excruciating the thrashing came? Couldn't they see the colors twisting and being ripped apart? Tamasine couldn't think…couldn't cope. It hurt…it hurt…

"You…you aren't are you? That awful Tamasine?" Oozey uttered incredulously, approaching her. "You couldn't really be her? Those ears are fake…and those eyes…how did you get that slitted effect? The _sake_ must be doing things to my head!" She turned back to Shortie. "_Oyaoya, Mari-chan_! How did you let me become so drunk? Heaven knows that there's no possible way that vile thing could set foot here! On Kikyo's gravesite no less! _Oyaoya_!" Oozey gather the alleged Mari-chan in her arms and dragged her past Tamasine, suddenly ignoring the _hanyou_'s presence, suddenly revealing their reason for being where they were with the slender flowers in their hands. They kneeled beside the small cement house in brief, pausing for slightly slurred prayer and then stood, placing the flowers in a pile near the grave. "Certainly it is too late, Mari-chan! Let us be gone before the spirits are out."

"They already are."

"Mari-chan?"

Mari-chan frowned and glared back at where Tamasine stood, frozen into motionlessness. "You!" she barked, feircly. "How dare you! I don't know who you are, but you should be ashamed! Defiling the sacred grave of our late Kikyo-sama with your cruel jokes! That evil Tamasine should have died with her horrible brother! Don't mock our priestess' vallant death! Go home!"

'_Go home'?_

"Mari-chan! Stop it!" Oozey tugged at her shoulder and dragged her foreward back past where Tamasine still stood. "Let's go!" Mari began to speak, but was silenced by her friend. "Please! We'll speak of this later!"

'_Horrible brother?_'

"I won't, Emi-san! Kikyo-sama wouldn't be dead at all if it weren't for that Dog Man! That evil demon! He deserved to die!"

'_DIE?_'

Tamasine's mind went completely blank. She felt her long unused claws crack and her fangs clench in a way that brought an unending wave of desperate nostalgia crashing against her carnal chambers, and fell into herself, as everything went numb and dark. She could just barely taste it as she swung down on the backs of the fleeing women. Her mind, heart, soul was in a different place, a different time.

_She was with a boy on the banks of a river in the depths of a forest. It was summer, bright, freckled and warm and the water was cool and soothing as it ran in gentle rivets around her feet. Her hair was short and hung tightly to her small face as she turned to the boy who was taller than she, leaning against the trunk of the nearest redwood. His own hair was long and silver and stretched to his back, and he turned to her seeing the question in her face._

'_What?'_

_She smiled widely, knowing she was predictable. However, she decided to play a familiar game. She wasn't quite sure if this question was one she should ask._

'_What 'what'?'_

'_Oh Tama!' he sighed, exasperatedly. 'Would you just cut it out! You know what I want.'_

'_Do not.'_

'_Do so.'_

'_Do not.'_

'_Do so!'_

'_Do not.'_

'_Ugh! You're so aggravating! Why can't you just answer the question!'_

'_What was the question?' she asked innocently, grinning from ear to ear as she watched him struggle._

'_Just ask me what you wanted to ask me!' he hollered back. He hated when she was difficult._

_Tamasine stopped smiling and shifted her glance back down at her small feet as the cool water pooled about them. Did she really want him to answer this question that throbbed so eagerly at the back of her head? Would he really answer truthfully? She had asked him this question in so many different ways…then again, she knew all the lies by heart. What did she have to lose?_

'_Well…you know Kikyo-sama, right?'_

'_Feh. What about her?'_

_That pretty much answered her question, but she decided to just spit it out._

'_What do you think?'_

'_What do you mean, 'what do I think'?'_

'_What do you think about her, oniichan?'_

'_Feh. She's nothing special.'_

'_Hn! I suppose you're right,' she said, giggling to herself. 'But…do you really think that?'_

'_Of course. We only need the Jewel, you know.'_

'_Of course.'_

_Another lie. No matter how much she loved her brother, he was a terrible liar. And with each one he told her, he got worse at it._

_Lies would get neither of them anywhere._

Tamasine could feel the world come spiraling back into focus. She was still so dizzy. The fall had left her nauseous. Everything around her still trembled dangerously. Where had she been? What had she been doing? The horrid light of morning was fresh in the air and she hated it. It swooped in stinging her hollow eyes, and she bared her teeth and arms against it.

"_Ningen banji saiou gauma_," she murmured, turning away from the two women she had just murdered and bounding back towards _Niwaurushi_.

-----

"Dead bodies near Kikyo's grave?"

"Aye, it's true Kaede-chan! I saw them as they were carried from their final resting place."

Kaede watched Kine trouble himself over the matter. He'd grown considerably over the last year, his glossy black hair sliding down to hang loosely around the base of his neck as his young muscles grew and filled out with use. He'd gotten taller, but still remained relatively scrawny around the middle. His small face and hands still remained sharply angled and white, and his eyes were still darkly pleasant.

"You warn me not to go today?"

He sighed, looking down. "You read me once more, Kaede-chan."

"You worry for my safety?"

Kine nodded, and a soft smile played on Kaede's small lips.

"You needn't stress yourself like that. I'm sure I'll be fine. I sense no demon aura but that of the Ruffian and Tamasine-chan in the area. It cannot possibly be that much of a threat," she giggled gently, trying to soothe his restless eyes. "It must be a rogue of one sort or another. Nothing you and your boys can not handle."

Kine walked from her hut unconvinced, but respectfully silent. A local village man had interrupted the two on orders to retrieve Kaede for an inspection of the newfound corpses. The young miko sighed unpleasantly, but knew that this was something that needed to be done. She wouldn't be able to visit Tamasine today. Visits were never very eventful any longer, but still, Kaede could not help but to feel guilty. She would need to send someone in her place.

-----

Tamasine sat, feet folded beneath her, the lids pulled low over her eyes, giving her an air of someone who is in deep and untapped thought. And indeed she was.

What was it she had felt last night? She had lost control. She did not know what had happened…what she had done. She had only known the faint sensation of warm, human blood sliding down her fingers as she dashed back to the fearsome tree, _Niwaurushi_. Something told her that if she were found out, the repercussions of her actions would be negative. But she did not even realize what these actions were. Why did she hide herself like this? The blood…where had it come from? Why did she stink of dying breath and the screams of people she did not know? What had she done last night?

It broke upon her—somewhat later that morning judging by the daylight filtering through her window-hole—that the young serving wench, Kaede, had not come. The small leaf attached to its twig behind her ear remained undiscovered. And thus, Tamasine's precarious balance of spirit went unchecked.

Near mid-afternoon the door creaked noisily behind her, sending her into a wave of startled jitters as she scuttled away from the rushed and hardly calming movements of the newly entered girl. She looked about fourteen with her characteristic scowl and small freckles, her spicy locks pulled back in a handkerchief of bland and displeasing coloration. The sleeves of her similarly decorated _yukata_ were grungy and rolled up to the mid arm just above her bony elbows as she placed a small tray of food in front of Tamasine with a loud _clank_ of china and tin.

"There you are," she snapped rudely, folding her arms across her small chest. "Kaede-sama told me to give it to you. And to stay while you ate it. I can't imagine why she'd care so much for you. You rotten, filthy thing."

Tamasine watched her, disgruntled at the girl's unsettling dislike of her, but was not quite sure how to react. Although the fact that she could understand the quickly spoken words surprised and alarmed her, she overlooked it and decided to do as the girl had said, if only to get her out of the room. She reached cautiously for the platter and took one of the ill-made riceballs from it. Certainly not Kaede's work, she noted, taking a bite and finding it bitter and unsalted.

As she slowly chewed, politely remaining silent, the girl continued to speak to her in the same vicious tones. "Personally, I can't believe you're still alive. You're heartless, brainless, good-for-nothing. I bring you delicious food and get not one word from you. What a pig. Just like that evil brother of yours."

Tamasine stopped chewing. There it was…that stinging pain again. That horrible stinging pain she had felt last night before everything had gone blank. Before whatever had happened had happened. Before she had lost control. Before she had done something she couldn't remember. Those women…hadn't that short one said the word 'brother' as well?

"That horrible InuYasha. You didn't suffer enough for what he did to us. Just out of the blue one day he attempted to assassinate our perfect Kikyo-sama. He stole the _Shikon no Tama_ and set fire to the temple. We're only lucky Kikyo-sama stopped him when she did. But then she died too, from wounds he inflicted upon her. You didn't take any of the blame for his actions. You tried to kill us too! And out of pity we kept you alive and out of harm's way. This is how you thank us? You wretched thing."

Tamasine dropped the riceball, a horrible rasping feeling in the back of her throat. Goosebumps sprang up all over her skin as a tremor ricocheted through her. Her chest pulsated painfully and there was a sudden shrill ringing in her ears as her stomach throbbed. She clutched at her heart, desperate to be sure it was still beating. A wild anger battered her wrists, as the world began to go hazy.

"What's the matter? Eat what I've given you, you ungrateful beast! Or does it pain you to hear what everyone knows is true about InuYasha? About you're 'wonderful _oniichan_'? Hehe," the girl giggled cruelly. "Well, it's not your fault he was so awful. Maybe that's why Kaede still keeps you locked up in here. Because she pities your bad fortune in being related to him. Hehe…"

Every was going violently white as Tamasine felt her own knuckles crack where she held them to her breast, her teeth gritted as rice dribbled freely through them.

"Oh well. Kaede's ignorant. Always has been, always will be. We'll get rid of you sooner or later. And InuYasha too. I'm tired of going to sleep in fear that he'll disturb it. When I get married to the lord's son, things'll be different. Kikyo's arrow holds him there. We'll just make sure that cur's heart never beats again! Hehe! That'll be the da—"

"_Urusai desu yo_."

Tamasine just barely felt it as her own hand jabbed itself through the girl's stomach. Barely heard it as the girl's painful scream wrenched itself free of her throat and spurted into the air. Barely knew. Barely thought. Her body wouldn't work under her commands anymore. And yet, she did not struggle. She refused to struggle. This body, this powerful body, was hers. The memories were flooding back and yet did not even remotely register. Only the images were noticed or acknowledged. The nostalgia took over as the door guards fell, rushing into the room only to meet their demise by her claws. They would not control her rage.

And neither would she.

-----

It was the yelling from down the path that first caught Kaede's attention.

"Kaede-sama! Kaede-sama!"

A man of tall stature was making for her as quickly as she had ever seen any human go. She stopped and waited for him to catch up, and within seconds he had skidded to a halt at her side. He had been moving much faster than she had first anticipated, and his arms were sweaty with the humid air and effort of it all. She prepared for a wait as he bent to catch his breath, but to her surprise he panted out the words instead of waiting for the breath he needed to say them properly.

"Please…it's…so awful…Tamasine…rampaging…village…killing…so many…Michiko…the guards…all dead…so spiteful…hurry…please…it's awful…" he panted.

-----

She did not know for how long she ran, or for what cause. The difference between roof tiles and the dirt road beneath her feet was not felt or recognized. Tamasine was lost in a dream-like sensation as she flew through the sunlight, blinded by fury and awesome ire as she slashed through villagers and carts alike. Nothing made sense except her inexplicable anger. She would make them pay. For what, she did not know or care. But she would make them pay. The screams of horror and pleading voices that cried for mercy fell on ears made deaf and daft by a year of darkness and pent-up thunder. She would make them pay…all of them…they would be sorry…

She ripped through the bowels of a horse and its master where they stood in her path, and leapt for the nearest house, grinning eerily with insane pleasure as it fell, eyes wide, glazed and unseeing. Sprinting ever faster, she spread her arms and dragged her sharp claws against the walls surrounding her. Splinters flew as building collapsed, relieved of they're brittle wooden foundations. None of them would live. She would make them pay.

-----

The town meeting had been called on very short notice. Kine was sure that that was the main contributor to the fact that almost none were in its attendance. But then, most who were capable of fighting had come. All the rest were either injured, dead, presumed so, or outwardly ignorant of the situation. But then, no one here really knew what was going on. Rumor had it that Tamasine had gone mad and was destroying the town, but… Kine didn't want to believe that. He fingered the hilt of his sword with uncomfortably pained and brief expression, and then snapped back into respectful emotionlessness as the Shogun entered.

"_Kaiji-dono_," the townsmen chanted in unison, touching their noses to the floor as they bowed.

Kaiji-dono was tall, almost too much, in a sense. He was twice Kine's height at the very least. But he wore eloquent robes of immense value and quantity, for despite his cleanliness and stature, he was, if anything, very lanky and loosely chiseled. His skin was an unsettling shade of milky yellow, and his eyes were huge with miniscule pupils, something that held true to almost every part of him, Kine was sure. His hair was a greasy sort of blackish murk piled at the edge of his forehead that made you certain it would feel absolutely dreadful to touch it.

He motioned for them all to rectify themselves and they did so. "Now then, my friends," he said quietly, "it is a crisis we find ourselves in. A crisis that we should've seen coming. A crisis that we could've prevented had we just been rid of it in the first place."

All leaned forward with growing anticipation.

"Tamasine has broken from her hold and is destroying the village as we speak."

There was an eruption of gasps from the small gathering followed by piercingly mean-spirited comments.

"That bitch! She should be burned!"

"I knew she was no good from the start!"

"Damn her!"

"Salvaging InuYasha's sister! How absurd! How foolish we were!"

"We'll kill her!"

"We'll get her!"

"Just like that horrible demon scumbag of a brother she's got!"

Kine leaned forward, resisting the urge to keel over with the dismay flooding his belly. This couldn't be happening…Tamasine…why would she do something like this? Oh no…oh God, no…He couldn't kill his best friend of 10 years…could he? He couldn't allow her to die…could he?

Did he even have a choice?

-----

The blood on her hands was cold, unrefreshed, unrelieved. The voices behind her were loud, deafening as the fire that engulfed them. The forest…she needed to get to the forest. A year-old scent of familiarity, fueled her, dragged her towards it. '_Tamasine…'_ it murmured. '_Hayaku, Tamasine. Hurry and come._' It was calling her. She couldn't resist it. Wouldn't resist it. She had to find something. Something precious and lost. She would recover it. Find it. Un-lose it.

She had to find that one thing she was looking for.

Her silver hair fluttered in her face and in the roaring wind behind her. Buildings and trees laughed at her desperation, her plight. With strangling, suffocating leaves, branches and beams they reached for, grabbing at her limbs, attempting to pull her down and keep her from finding that one precious thing. This thing…it was lost amidst them. She had to find it…they were holding it prisoner. She would save it. She would free her precious thing, lost and captive in the trees of this forest.

Arrows and spears followed her steps, biting at her starved ankles and bare heels. The fire raged in the village just behind her, the townsmen crashing through the foliage. They didn't want her to find her precious either. Evil things…evil things…

She had to find him. Her Precious. Her wonderful Precious.

She whipped through the trees, the sting of a bamboo arrow grazing her thigh gone unnoticed as she leapt aside, her form flowing over the familiar path. Her Precious…her Precious…

She would find it. She would find him. She would do whatever she could. She would free her Precious. These evil things could not stop her.

She saw him by chance, whirling around to face her attackers at the foot of a well. A tree. Evil thing. The tree was keeping him there. She'd known it. All along she'd known it. Evil thing. Imprisoning her Precious.

-----

"We can't let them kill her, Kine!" Eri yelled to him as they dashed through the trees. "She's our friend!"

"Was our friend Eri," Kine replied in a chastising tone, correcting his younger comrade. "I don't think that's the case any longer."

"Of course it is! She was our Captain! She helped us through everything we've every dealt with! Of course she's our friend!" The younger boy didn't seem to get it. Ah well, you couldn't expect much acknowledgement like that from 12-year-olds.

"I'd like to believe that too Eri," Uta yelled from his position across Kine, "but facts are facts! The Captain doesn't exist anymore! She died the same day, InuYasha-kun did!"

"She didn't! I know she's still in there somewhere!" Eri was indignant. He believed in Tama, his Team Captain. She wouldn't let them down like this. She never let them down. She always came through, shining for everyone's benefit, never leaving anyone behind or letting them get hurt. She would come back. She always did. Someday, she would come back and everything would be the way it always had been.

"I think you're right Eri," Kine said softly. "But our Tama's hidden away in there **really deep**. Too deep. There's nothing we can do to bring her back to life. She's just too far gone. Maybe it'd be better to just put her out of her misery."

-----

Her Precious. She'd found him. Her wonderful Precious. Bound to a tree. Suffering. Dying. She would free him. Stuttered and trembling steps brought Tamasine closer. She pressed her hands into the red clothe of fabric over her chest. So soft…so familiar…he was faintly warm, yet motionless. No pulse, nor breath escaped him. And yet…she knew that he was alive. Alright. Her Precious…so soft, warm and familiar…

Her Precious…

She moved closer, collapsing in slightly, holding on tight to the fabric of his robes, touching it to her face and nose, breathing in the scent of his silver hair, identical to hers. She felt the bark beneath his limp arms, and his stomach against hers. She could remember nothing. Her Precious…her Precious…

She ignored the whiz of arrows and spears as they crashed around her, into her, through her. Her legs were bleeding profusely, full of holes. She couldn't feel them…she was completely numb to the world around her. She held her Precious to her tightly, pressing her face into his chest. Her Precious…her Precious…

The voices were all around her now. She didn't listen, didn't comprehend. Her Precious…her Precious…

-----

"She's found her brother!"

"Get her off of him!"

Eri stood, staring at the scene in absolute horror. Kine hesitated to draw his sword unlike Uta to his left, whose katana glinted in the dying sun.

The sound of yelling had carried the boys swiftly to the crowded circle surrounding her. There she was, perfect as they could ever remember, looking dazed and unyielding, completely oblivious. She couldn't hear any of them. She simply stood there, leaning on her brother's wilted body, embracing him, clinging to his tree. Her lips were moving slightly…she was talking to herself.

They had her boxed in. Why wasn't she fighting, running? Looking for a way out? Her eyes were cold, lifeless and dim. What was wrong? Would she give her life away so carelessly? Sacrificing herself under circumstances of such little meaning?

"Captain…" Eri whispered desperately, his eyes full of unshed tears, pleading for forgiveness for that of his constant savior since birth. This girl who had saved him from starvation with her own small ration of food, allowed him to live in her home, treated him as one of her own when she herself had nothing but that. This girl who was so selfless that she had given up any dreams she had ever had that didn't include her older brother. This girl who had brought all the orphaned children of the village, hypothetically or otherwise, and taught them a game she called "football", full of high kicks and devious plans and laughter and teamwork, things none of them had ever had before. This girl that they all loved one way or another, that they found impossible to live without, that was better than any boy of the team at everything, that he looked to as a foster sibling. Tama-dono…Captain…

Kine chewed at his lip. This couldn't be happening…would they just let them kill her? Certainly she was a threat now…but why? He didn't want to watch her die, by any means. This girl, his rival, his best friend since childhood. He wasn't ready to say goodbye to her yet.

But then, as before, he didn't know if that choice was really his to make.

He drew his sword and Eri looked to him with alarm. "No…! Please Kine! Don' kill her! Please!" He grabbed the older boy's arm. "Please! I'll do anything! Just please! She's my friend! _Your_ friend! Please! Please don't kill her!" The tears slid down his cheeks, unchecked, as Kine watched him with growing dismay.

"What possesses you, boy?" one of the village me yelled from where Tama was encircled by a crowd of spears. "This is a demon! We need to get rid of it before it kills someone else! You should be proud that she tired herself out killing your mother and my wife and children!"

"No! Kine, don't listen! You know that's not true! She's more than just a demon! She's our Captain! She's Tama! Please don't let them kill her!" Eri sobbed. Blank golden eyes starred back at him, beholding nothing, where Tama hung from her brother's shirt.

There was a harsh silence as Kine stared down into little Eri's tear-streaked face.

"And you would rather let her suffer the pain of having no one?" he said finally, talking only to the boy he called his friend.

"ah…! What? She has us!"

"But is that the way you see it? Or the way she sees it?"

"ah…!"

"Look at her Eri. Our Captain isn't there anymore. The only thing that's left of her soul…is her desire to protect her brother. To be with InuYasha…to protect him…to die with him…Isn't that what she told you when we talked about dreams that one night?"

"ah…" Yes, Eri thought. Only a few years ago, when he was seven years old, they had lain the meadow, the whole team, and spoken of what they dreamt of doing with their lives. It had been a warm summer night, full of cicadas in the soft grass stalks. InuYasha-dono had blushed really hard when Tama-dono had said that. He could recall it with undenying clarity. She had said it with no disregard whatsoever, so boldly and heartfelt. It had made everyone blush, he remembered, knowing what their Captain wanted most.

'_I'm going to protect Yasha-niichan from everything, forever and ever and ever!'_

"She's empty without him. Almost nonexistent. That crushed dream has filled her entirely. That one thing she wanted so badly…was destroyed that day. She has nothing more to live for. It's cruel to try and coerce into coping with that pain. I don't think there's anything better to do. I don't want to kill her…but I don't want her to suffer."

Eri sniffled and nodded. "I know…I don't want that either. But isn't there another way?"

"Yeah, you think of it and let me know," Uta snapped, speaking for the first time after enduring long minutes of silence.

Eri looked away, eyes scrunched tight. He couldn't watch this. He knew Kine was right. But still he couldn't watch this happen. He didn't want to let it happen. But atleast he didn't need to watch. Kine glanced at the younger boy as he left, and sighed gravely. Tama still hadn't moved.

He shared a curt nod with Uta and they parted the circle, walking towards her.

"Tama…don't worry. I'm sorry…I'm sorry to let you suffer so long," he said gently, raising his blade to eye level and gazing sadly into hers. No response, no recognition. Death. Glazed, glassy death in every corner of those eyes. "You're my best friend. I'm so sorry."

No response. She stayed still, however. She refused to move. He memorized how she looked just then: her long, bony figure slumped against that of her unconscious brother, her silver hair fluttering ever so tentatively in the breeze. This wasn't Tama. Tama wasn't like this. Tama was dead.

This was a prisoner. A prisoner long ready for execution.

Somehow, looking at it that way took a little bit of weight off the subject. A prisoner, that's what she was. And he was going to save her from this. It wasn't pretty but it had to be done. So that her suffering would end. So that she could die as she'd always wanted to, by her brother's side.

Not very much weight, mind you, but it did shift the guilt a little.

However, Kine's logics were sliced in two as he lifted his blade to strike. A bamboo arrow, whistling, hollow and well-aimed, zipped past his cheek and directly into Tamasine's back, impaling her where she stood. She shuddered slightly, as silent stares surrounded her, and then slumped, eyes closing.

The pain in her breast was relieving. She blinked, tears finally reaching her and sliding gently down her soft cheeks. It felt good. The pain itself was explosive, but it had penetrated just perfectly, just in the right place. A huge amount of pressure floated away, and she felt as if gravity itself was leaving her.

She shuddered violently, and her lungs emptied themselves.

-----

"_Onnichan?"_

"_What is it?" InuYasha groaned back at his sister, perturbed at the notion of being disturbed just as he was drifting off to sleep._

"_I love you. I love you more than the night sky and the wind and the birds in the morning. I love more than the sunlight shining on my face. I love you. I love you so much."_

"_I know," he sighed, contentedly. "I love you too, Futari-imou."_

_And he really did._

-----

Kine walked from the forest, solemn, his sword in his sheath. There was no possible excuse for what he'd just seen. For the any of it. There was no excuse. Ever. He would never—could never—ask for redemption from this. Uta plodded beside him, the young woman's corpse in his stiff, white-washed arms, the arrow that had killed her left far behind in the clearing. Eri was nowhere to be found.

There was movement on the forest path ahead as Kaede hurried in to view, freezing upon site of them. "Oh Kami-sama…" she gasped. "Oh, dear Kami-sama…" She covered her mouth with her hands and raced up to them the tears streaking her cheeks, begging the dead body to open its eyes to the world. "Oh Kine-san! What have you done? Oh Kami-sama…Oh Kami-sama…" she sobbed.

"Oh Kami-sama, Kine, what have you done!"

-----

The body was layed down in the backyard of the house both Taisho siblings had shared since their births. It was buried immediately, with little ceremony, as to avoid confrontation with less than mournful villagers. Kine would never recover, and would later be found with his wrists slit soon after his marriage to an upstanding gentlewoman. Kaede would never again open the door to the downstairs corridor of the shrine. The passage Tamasine had used to come and go as she pleased would never be rediscovered, and would soon become overgrown and unusable. And only two people would ever ascertain who had shot the fateful arrow, five-hundred years after it had actually flown.

But the soil was not a person. And ageless as it was it knew all these things. It also knew to carry out the one last request it's master had had for it. And, within two hours of her burial it had penetrated Tamasine's heart, bringing out what was desired by all, the only counter to the Shikon Jewel, it's only equal, and the only thing that could possibly hope to make the situation worse.

And upon doing this, a little girl was transported to rest in her father's tomb for five centuries of waiting, until she could finally be reunited with the one she loved more than anything.

-----

**Wow, that took forever. Yeah, it was supposed to be longer, but I got fed up with waiting for my own freaking update and decided to just get it over with. But hey, fifteen pages! Not bad! Unless no one cares…//faints from her lack of reviewers/**

**I don't really feel like going through and translating all the Japanese so you're going to need to e-mail me if you want to know what everything means. Review!**


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